Just a couple of hours before I hit the air today at 3ET, the Washington Post sent a breaking news alert with the headline, "Texas Republicans dare Democrats to stay out of state another month." (gift link)
They further explain,
"The lawmakers put new pressure on absent Democrats to return to the state, testing whether they'll stay away another month to try to kill a plan to redraw congressional districts in favor of the GOP."
In other words, the Republicans who rule the Texas state legislature, following the Oval Office felon's directives, are stretching the norms of the gerrymander to do away with any districts that might vote for the Democratic candidates in the 2026 midterms.
Redistricting in the middle of the decade? Not a regular occurrence. Is it illegal?
That's one of the questions I have for David Daley, author of three books on the subject. The one that started it all was Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count. He followed that with Unrigged: How Americans are Battling Back to Save Democracyin 2021. Unfortunately, the landscape has since changed.
Dave’s newest book, released in 2024, is Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections.
Dave is also the former editor of Salon.com, and is a senior fellow at FairVote, who advocates for ranked choice voting and proportional representation, so he knows this subject.
Dave gave us the lay of the land regarding gerrymandering, apportionment and where we currently stand, and it’s not a pretty picture. Sadly, a woman in the YouTube chatroom during the show, Stephanie, commented saying,
“Dave is so pessimistic. I’m sorry I tuned in.”
Wow. I’m so sorry she felt that way. But, as I said before, David Daley is an expert on this subject and he was just telling us the facts that we need to know. He wasn’t trying to discourage us, but not knowing the truth about what is happening will not make the situation any better. Not understanding how dire the situation is will just give people (the wrong) reason to not try their hardest to correct the problems. We NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH!
As depressing as that truth may be…
I thought we’d also get to the rest of the news on today’s show. It’s the usual these days… D’ump creates chaos as he keeps the ball in motion trying to steal another election (while he invokes opposite world and claims the Democrats are stealing the elections).
Then there’s the soft launch of Martial Law in Washington DC and other anti-democratic and harmful machinations set in motion by the guy who, if he were a Democrat, would have been 25th amendmented by now…
Instead, I got sidelined by a call from our friend Spocko who filled us in on the work he’s doing to amplify our voices and help truth tellers come together to get our message out.
Tomorrow on the show, one of social media’s most prolific Tweeters, podcast producer, columnist and all-around really smart guy, Jason Sattler, better known as @LOLGOP.
Watch today’s show via YouTube:
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